Pressure is indeed a privilege, as sports icon Billie Jean King once famously said.
But pressure can also be a burden. Ask any player who’s ever competed in a championship game in any sport.
For the North Shore High School girls soccer team, there was a lot of pressure in Thursday night’s Class A title game, played at Farmingdale State College.
The Vikings were going for their first county crown since 2017, when several siblings of the current team brought home some glory to Glen Head.
Unfortunately for North Shore, history did not repeat itself this week, as a Wantagh goal 15 minutes into the contest proved to be the difference.
The Warriors defeated the Vikings, 1-0 to advance to the Long Island championship game.
For North Shore head coach Lauren Gotta, pressure, and handling it, was the biggest difference.
“I think our kids were a little nervous in big moments,” Gotta said. “It’s definitely a nerve-wracking environment. We have been struggling with pressure all season long, and that’s what got us.”
“Going into the second half without having scored, put a little more pressure on us,” senior Ally Bacile said. “And trying to beat a team three times is tough.”
The Vikings, who entered the tournament as the No.1 seed and finished the season 11-6-2, had a fabulous season up until Thursday.
Led by forward Sam DiBenedetto’s 19 goals and Crystal Knoell’s nine goals and seven assists, North Shore blitzed most opponents. Erin Lily La Rosa’s nine goals also helped power the attack, as the Vikings scored three goals or more 10 times in 2024.
“It went the way it always goes with our kids: we start off slow and then peak at the right time,” Gotta said.
A key change to North Shore’s fortunes was a change in their offensive attack early in the year.
“We wanted to create a system where we could attack with five or six different players, and create more movement off the ball,” Gotta said. “So we went to a higher level system where the kids learned to think outside the box.”
The system tweak worked, and with North Shore having beaten Wantagh twice earlier this season (4-3 and 2-1), the team was confident heading into Thursday that it could avenge last season’s semifinal loss and win the county.
“We scored a lot more this season than we ever have before,” Bacile said. “It really made a big difference.”
But a little more than 15 minutes into the first half, Wantagh’s Kayla Mannix fired a high shot over the head of North Shore goalie Charlie Healy go give her team the early lead.
The Vikings had lots of chances in the first half, with Gotta saying her team played much better in opening stanza, but could not get a shot past Wantagh goalie Gabriella Astaiza, who made five saves.
“We certainly had our opportunities, we just didn’t take advantage of them,” Gotta said.
Still, despite the loss Gotta looks at the season as a positive one.
“I’m super proud of our kids; they came a long way,” she said. “A lot of our kids have been with me since seventh grade, so to see them improve and develop as players has been really fun.”
“We are pretty proud of our season; making it to the county finals tells me it ended well,” Bacile said. “One last game isn’t going to ruin it.”